Today was proof as to why it wasn’t worth spending a couple of more days in Buenos Aires. I woke up, took the subway 7.5 pesos each way (50¢) to plaza Italia and visited the botanical gardens (free) when it opens at 0930. After that I walked a short distance to the Japanese Garden, which…
11th day – well actually the cruise is over and it is the day to disembark. After breakfast we walked off the ship, found our luggage and walked a block away from the taxi stand to order an Uber. Taxi drivers don’t like Uber, so when we walked through the taxi drivers I told them…
The ship arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina today. Although our passports were already stamped December 22nd and returned to us before arriving in Uruguay. I’ve never seen that before. I have seen passports returned before the end of a cruise, but after returning to a Schengen country, and once in a Schengen country no further stamps…
Today’s stop was in Montevideo, Uruguay. It was a pleasant city with free museums within walking distance (and they hand out a walking tour map at the port). I went to a free walking tour at 11 AM, the guide was very good. The tour guide was very humorous. Information on the free walking…
I know what you are probably thinking…. Uruguay??? It’s not exactly on most American’s radar. However this was quite a nice country to visit. I ganged up with four others that I met during the Cruise Critic meet and greet on the first day of the cruise. Once we got off the ship they gave…
Yet another relaxing day at sea. Tonight I had dinner with the hotel director. He was a very interesting fellow and had been with the company for many years. I believe he had a degree in hospitality. He said when he first applied, he applied as a waiter. They asked him how many years he…
Finally vacation starts… Today is one of only two sea days on the trip, so it was a chance to recover. I received a letter today confirming dinner with the hotel director the next night. If you cruise on NCL pay attention to the information the first day of the cruise, typically they mention dinner…
Last day visiting Brazil. The port is Santos, Brazil – famous for Pele. I took an excursion through the ship to Sao Paulo, Brazil. The drive through the forest to Sao Paulo was very scenic and included many tunnels and bridges between the mountains. We drove by the Municipal Theater, Catedral sa Se, stopped…
In the morning the weather looked like it would rain all day today, but as soon as I got to shore the weather cleared up and it was a wonderful day. The tour was a bit of a bust, but I continued hiking to a waterfall. I managed to get a few good pictures without…
Arrived in Buzios on time, this is a tendered port, but with the ship not being overly large and not being very full the tendering process was very smooth. I took a tour that drove to a couple of viewpoints and one beach. The one beach was nice, with red/pink sand, some rocks with algae…
The museums in Rio don’t open until noon, and I’ve seen a lot of Rio already. I walked to the bonde station (???? trolley) near the Petrobras HQ to visit Santa Teresa neighborhood in the morning. I took the trolley back, visited Paço Imperial (Imperial Palace) and the Naval museum. No sailaway video today…….
I started the day by packing my bag, checking out of the hotel and storing my bags there. I took the public bus to the Botanical Gardens as it was one of the things open early in the morning. From there I took a bus (almost to CInelandia – because I accidentally typed in…
I started the day by taking the metro to Cinelandia and taking the free walking tour. http://riofreewalkingtour.com/?/passeio/11/downtown_and_lapa_historic_tour The tour was excellent and visited many of the places I wanted to go. We started outside the Municipal Theater and saw the aqueduct in Lapa, the Selaron steps and ended at the…
Arrived in Rio de Janeiro early… In fact I passed through customs, immigration, and an ATM, took a taxi and arrived at my hotel at 0800. The hotel room was as described and looked exactly like the picture. To my surprise it wasn’t raining (unlike the weather forecast that called for rain for…
After working in the morning I drove to the Stockholm Arlanda airport. For those who think my day job is glamorous – I didn’t even get to see anything in Stockholm, not even from the car. Halfway to Stockholm from Finspång it started to snow. Luckily I had plenty of time to arrive to the…